England beat Wales 29-18 at Twickenham to win Triple Crown, stay in hunt for Six Nations title

Mon 10 Mar 2014, 7:27 AM AEDT

Photo

Luther Burrell scored a first-half try in England's 29-18 Six Nations win over Wales at Twickenham.

Getty Images: Stu Forster

England has a great chance of winning only its second Six Nations title in 11 years after the team comprehensively overwhelmed double-defending champions Wales 29-18 on Monday (AEDT), securing a first Triple Crown since 2003 in the process.

England avenged a 30-3 thrashing in Cardiff a year ago by delivering a display full of confident running and high-pressure defending and scored first-half tries through Danny Care and Luther Burrell.

Superlative goal-kicking by fullback Leigh Halfpenny, who landed six out of six penalty attempts before suffering a dislocated shoulder late in the game, somehow kept Wales in touch for an hour as England's breakdown errors threatened to undo some good work.

But the hosts, responding to a terrific Twickenham atmosphere on a hot and sunny day, eventually took complete control through their own great goalkicker Owen Farrell to set up a Saturday finale when the title is almost certain to be decided on points difference.

Ireland, France and England all have six points but Ireland's huge +81 points difference means they will surely take the title if they win in Paris in the final game of the championship.

If France (+3) prevail, England (+32) would be well placed for the championship should it manage any sort of win over Italy in Rome earlier in the day.

"The performance is right up there," coach Stuart Lancaster told reporters. "We've tried to remove the fear of failure and asked them to go out and play...and overall our intent to play brought us a reward.

"We've got a big game next week now, we're still in the fight and we want to be ready for Italy."

England had been somewhat unlucky to lose the opening game of the campaign to France, and the team was itching for revenge for last year's humbling in Cardiff, though only six of the starting team from that day were in Sunday's side.

The home side should have been virtually home and dry by half-time after totally dominating the opening 40 minutes.

England open things up at Twickenham

England's decision to play an adventurous, running game and seemed to catch the Welsh out. The visitors were certainly asleep for the opening try after five minutes when Care tapped a penalty and ran in untouched.

But, in a pattern that would be repeated all half, England immediately gave away a breakdown penalty which Halfpenny slotted.

England, lifted by a vibrant Twickenham crowd basking in the sunshine, continued to make all the running and when Billy Twelvetrees sent a clever kick into the corner for impressive centre Burrell to dive on the hosts were 20-9 ahead and in charge.

Two more sloppy penalties, however, allowed Halfpenny to get his team back within five points at 20-15 at the turnaround - a situation coach Warren Gatland later said he was delighted with having been so comprehensively outplayed.

Wales, featuring no fewer than 12 test British and Irish Lions, briefly upped its game after the break but poor decision-making ruined the best opportunities and instead it was England who cashed in with three more sweetly-struck Farrell penalties.

England was less adventurous as the game went on as Farrell introduced more tactical kicking but aggressive and determined defence kept the Welsh pinned deep as the champions, seeking a fourth successive win over England, tried desperately to claw back an 11-point deficit going into the final quarter.

The Welsh did not ever really look like doing so and it was England who finished searching for more points.

"We missed a few tackles and gave away too many turnovers," said Welsh captain Sam Warburton. "We were chasing the game, the crowd got behind them and you could see it lifted them.

"We've been pretty inconsistent through the tournament."

The teams will meet again at Twickenham in the pool phase of the 2015 World Cup, when, with Australia also in their group, the loser could be looking at missing out on a place in the quarter-finals.